Zheng Yu (于ε³₯)

Daily immersion in evil leads to withering; the diligent pursuit of goodness leads to flourishing.

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About Me (CV)

I'm graduating in early 2026 and actively seeking full-time opportunities. Please check out my CV and feel free to contact me if you're interested!

My name is Zheng Yu. I am a PhD candidate in the Computer Science department at Northwestern University, advised by Prof. Xinyu Xing. My research interests include System Security and AI Security. My goal is to enhance the security of programs with minimal human intervention.


I obtained my bachelor's degree from the ACM Honor Class at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, majoring in Computer Science. My advisor was Prof. Chao Li. Additionally, I was also very fortunate to be advised by Prof. Meng Xu at the University of Waterloo during my research visits.


Besides, I am very interested in and good at algorithm design. I was an OIer when I was studying at Yali. I am also a CTF player; I used to play CTF with Nu1L and StrawHat.


Outside of research, I enjoy traveling and painting, including watercolor and sketching. Here is a gallery that is still under construction.

News

Publications

* indicates equal contribution.

Conference Presentations

Honors & Awards

  • CSAW Applied Research Competition Finalist & Technical Impact Award Runner-up 2025

    NYU Tandon School of Engineering - PatchAgent Project

  • USENIX Security Student Grant Recipient 2024, 2025

    USENIX Association

  • DARPA AIxCC Advanced Finals 2024

    Top Finalist - Team 42-b3yond-6ug

  • ACM CCS Student Grant Recipient 2024

    ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security

  • DEFCON CTF Finals - 5th Place 2023

    Team StrawHat (7th Place in 2022)

  • Outstanding Graduate Award 2022

    Shanghai Jiao Tong University

  • Zhiyuan Honor Scholarship 2018-2021

    Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Top 2% annually)

  • China National Olympiad in Informatics - Silver Medal 2017

    China Computer Federation (CCF) - Top 100 Nationally

Media Coverage

Work & Teaching Experience

  • Teaching Assistant Sep. 2025 – Dec. 2025


    Operating Systems (COMP_SCI 343), Instructor: Dr. Branden Ghena Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

  • Visiting Graduate Researcher Jun. 2025 – Sep. 2025


    CrySP Lab, Advisor: Prof. Meng Xu University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

  • Teaching Assistant Sep. 2024 – Dec. 2024


    Introduction to Computer Security (COMP_SCI 350), Instructor: Prof. Xinyu Xing Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

  • GSOC Project Mentor Apr. 2022 – Oct. 2022


    Bridging Qiling and Static Analysis Google Summer of Code 2022

  • Security Engineer Jun. 2021 – May 2022


    Application Security Team - Firmware Emulation JD.COM, Inc., Beijing, China

  • Infrastructure Engineer Sep. 2019 – May 2021


    Information and Network Center Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

  • Teaching Assistant Jun. 2019 – Sep. 2019


    Programming Design and Data Structures (CS151), Instructor: Prof. Huiyu Weng Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China